


Mud

by jonghotz



Series: a lifetime [2]
Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Small Town, Ambiguous Relationships, Childhood Friends, Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Non-Chronological, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-04 16:53:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18608632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonghotz/pseuds/jonghotz
Summary: 'Remember when you used to play with the mug when we were kids?'He could only bring himself to answer with a nod.





	1. Dirt

His mother told him, warn him. _'Don't touch the dirt.'_ But she should know better. There was no way Jongho was going to miss the satisfaction of getting his hands into the puddle that formed next to his house every time it rained. No.

He knew that if his father found out, he was going to be on great trouble. Jongho have been alive for six years to know that already. But his father wasn't supposed to be at home until eight, and it was only four, he have plenty of time to play in the dirt and then get a shower. There was no way he would ever find out, his mother would never tell him.

"That's dirty." He heard an unfamiliar voice said from somewhere behind him. His answer was just a confused sound.

Everyone told him that. _'That's what pigs do.'_ His father told him the first time he found him doing it. But he couldn't understand how would someone not found it funny. He sensation on the dirt in your hands. Funny.

"You're weird." The kid said, something that Jongho could only qualify as disgust on his face.

"I'm not." He answered fast. People have called him a lot of things through his life, but it was the first time someone addressed him as weird.

"You are. Someone not weird would never play with dirt."

Jongho opted for silence.

"What's your name weird boy?"

"Jongho." His voice was small suddenly.

"How old are you?"

"Six." He took his hand out of the dirt. Soon the mud was going to dry, and he could play as if he was turning into a tree-man.

"I'm seven."

"I don't know your name." His mother have always told him to not talk with strangers, but he always guess she means adult strangers, not child strangers who were a year older than him.

"Yeosang." Even if Jongho smiled at him, Yeosang didn't, he haven't smiled not even once since he first saw him.

He was a weird kid, Jongho thought. Then discarded it as soon as it came to his mind. He didn't like it when Yeosang called him that, and he was sure he wouldn't like it either.

"I have never seen you." Jongho said with a smile.

"I moved here yesterday."

"Oh! That's cool. Where is your house?" The mud was already dry. He smiled at himself.

"That one." Yeosang signalled at the house down the street where nobody have lived ever since he have conscience. It would be weird to have somebody living there now, he liked to play around the house. He was the only kid on his neighborhood and his parents never let him left their street alone, so he had to let his imagination run wild if he wanted to have a good time. Unlike the kids on his class, his parents have never bought him one of those video games consoles. Now that Yeosang was going to live here maybe they could play together.

"I have to go." Yeosang suddenly said.

"See you tomorrow?" Jongho asked with a smile.

"I don't know." Was the answer he got.

That was the first time Jongho really wanted to get closer to someone. The kids on his class, they were funny, but they were also mean, not as mean as Yeosang have just been. He wouldn't call that mean.

Ten years later and Jongho looked as Yeosang went out of his house as almost every day. It was early in the morning and they took their usual walk to school.

"It rained a lot yesterday." Yeosang commented and Jongho could see how hard he was trying to not look at the scratches on his face.

"Yeah, I was kinda worried the rain was gonna destroy my house." He tried to keep the air between them not as sick, not wanting to draught Yeosang with his problems.

"Remember when you used to play with the mug when we were kids?"

He could only bring himself to answer with a nod.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> My twitter is @jonghotz if you want to comment anything there, my DMs are always open.


	2. Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is no explicit violence but it is implicit.

He had a feeling, something tingling on him. Yeosang lying on his bed not even three minutes ago, now suddenly on the door of his house, his mother looking at him with a weird face.

"What's wrong?" She asks, and Yeosang has no idea how to tell her that he does not know, not even a clue. But something is wrong, definitely wrong.

"I don't know." It's something catching on his throat. The sick feeling that he should know.

"You okay?" Her sweet voice gets to his ears and he nods, out of inertia.

He stays away from the door, goes to the window instead. It almost November, the weather isn't exactly the best, but Yeosang is suffocating on the air of his house.

Like that's his signal someone screams from down the street and he hears cries. His ears blocking every noise his mother is making, screaming at him to stay quiet, to not go. This time he opens the door, running down the street, passing all the houses he knows like the palm of his hand, because he knows where he should go.

"Yechan!" He screams. His friend's little brother is on the sidewalk in front of his house, screaming while he cries. He is saying something about his brother, about his mother, not even a word about his father.

Half of the neighbours are out of the house, looking at the scene, as if it is the first time they have seen it.

"Jongho!" Yeosang screams when he sees him walking out of the door, still screaming something at his father while his mother tries to hold the elder man back.

"Jongho!" It's Yechan this time, and that seems to get the older Choi brother out of the moment he is been into. His mind going back to where it should be.

"Let's go." Yeosang says to Yechan, but he is looking at Jongho, waiting for him to follow them.

Jongho joins them a minute later, taking his brother hand that it's not into Yeosang's.

"I'm sorry." He murmurs to the youngest's ear, letting a kiss on his cheek once they inside the Kang's residency.

Jongho doesn't cry, he barely does, Yeosang have noticed after the eight years they have spent together. He just sits there on the kitchen while Yeosang's mother cleans his face. There is lots of blood coming from the side of his mouth, so she has to check if he had a tooth broken, luckily he doesn't. There is also blood coming out of his nose, that his mother is pretty sure is broken.

The smell of blood reaching him. **  
**

They both have seen Jongho beaten up tons of time, but this one have been the worst so far.

"Yechan?" Yeosang said after they managed to calm the younger down, with Jongho's words and some water, it took a while, but they did it. "Want to go to my room and sleep?" He asks, the sweetest he can.

It took him anwhile to come down, Yechan not wanting to sleep alone. Nobody would after what he just went through, so Yeosang laid there with him. He was sure he cried again before falling asleep. Before he closed his yes, though, the elder promised him that everything would be better in the morning. But it clearly will be not. He did feel bad about lying at the kid, not that he could do much.

His mother was talking with Jongho when he finally came down almost half an hour later.

It was barely 10 PM.

"You know I can't do that." Jongho claimed while looking at the ground, face already clean. "They will take Yechan away."

Yeosang knew what this all was about, his mother trying to convince Jongho to tell the police, once again, and Jongho telling her that they would send Yechan to an orphanage that would be probably worse than their house. That he would never find a regular family, because nobody wanted a kid that was already that old. He didn't want his brother to spend his youth without only one place to stay at, even if it was a shitty one.

Yeosang has never been sure that was the best option, that much he have told Jongho a few times, but he was nobody to order him what to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> My twitter is @jonghotz if you want to comment anything there, my DMs are always open.


	3. Almonds

"Want some?" Yeosang asked. Extending him something on a bag.

"What is that?" He asked, wanting to change his face expressions to show him how confused he was, but he did not, because his whole face hurts.

"Almonds." The other boy moved the hand again.

"I have never tried them like this." Jongho end up taking one, and bringing it to his mouth. It was a weird feeling on his tongue, but he liked it. Dryness. "It's good." He nodded.

They were outside, sitting on the sidewalk of Yeosang's house, his own house not even ten houses away.

"Sorry about everything." He finally said, looking back at Yeosang and not at the light coming from his parents' room.

"It's not your fault, Ho. You know that right?" Yeosang had this sad voice, not a pity one, just pure and raw sadness.

"It is. I'm the one who doesn't want to call the police, the one that keeps on making my mom hurt and my brother hurt even more." He knew that everything could end, that the police and the whole judicial system would be on his side. But he was being egoist, at least this time and Jongho wasn't sure if he had take the best moment to be.

He knew his brother would not be adopted because he was almost ten years old, and people usually wanted to adopt babies. He knew that there was no way nobody would adopt him, much less both of them together. And if there was something he wanted on his life was to know where his brother was, what he was doing. So no, he didn't want them to join the foster program.

Jongho wasn't even 16, so getting a job and leaving their house with his brother wasn't an option either.

He could try and change his mother's mind, but she herself being beaten up every once in a while and still not saying a thing was a signal that that wasn't an option either.

"Ho." Yeosang called from beside him. "You know you can stay here, right?" And he still sounded so sad, only this time a little more concerned. But no, that was out of his options too.

Yeosang and his mother were alone. Yeosang's father died before even his friend get to know him. This house was the only thing they had left. Ms. Kang has a job, but he knew for a fact that it barely make it to cover hers and Yeosang's necessities. No, they were already doing enough for him and his brother.

"Yes, but it's okay, Yeo. Everything will be better after a few days. He should leave next week, and everything will be okay." He smiled, the best he could with the big scratch he had on the right side of his mouth.

"Your eye is already turning lilac." The other boy raised his hand, his mind screaming at him to move fast, but he had to remain his stupid brain that this was Yeosang the one they talking about. His friend would never do that to him.

"I look really badass right now, don't I?" This time he laughed. It did hurt, to laugh, his whole body was beaten up. Jongho was sure his eye wasn't the only thing with bruises. His stomach should had a few too.

But it felt nice to laugh.

Yeosang also laugh beside him, but it wasn't a fulfilling one. He couldn't blame him, though. His wasn't either.

"We have to sleep on the couches. Your brother is sleeping on my bed." Yeosang said standing up. "Let's go."

He look up to his house one last time. Everything was dark now.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> My twitter is @jonghotz if you want to comment anything there, my DMs are always open.


End file.
